Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

'
'
SFOGATO SGAMBATI 431
Winter, lie detemiined to become a professional
musician. In this, his intimacy with Mozart
and subsequent acquaintance with Beethoven
were of much use. ^ His teachers were Kozeluch
for the PF. and organ, and Haydn for theory.
In 1797 he became joint conductor of Schikaneder's
theatre with Henneberg, a post he retained
in the new Theatre an der Wien ' ' from its
opening in 1801 till 1826. The first work he
produced there was a setting of Schikaneder's
comic opera 'Der Loweubrunnen ' (1797), and
the second, a grand opera 'Der WundeiTnann
am Kheinfall' (1799), on which Haydn wrote
him a very complimentary letter. These were
succeeded by innumerable operas great and
small, operettas, singspiele, music for melodramas,
plays (including some by Schiller and
Grillparzer), ballets, and pantomimes. Specially
successful were his biblical dramas, 'Saul,
Konigvon Israel' (1810), 'Abraham' (1817),
'Die Maocabaer,' and 'Die Israeliten in der
Wiiste.' The music to 'Ahasverus' (1823) he
arranged from piano pieces of Mozart's, and
the favourite singspiel, 'Die Ochsenmenuette
(1823) (an adaptation of Hofmann's vaudeville
'
Le menuet du boenf ') was similarly a pasticcio
ii-om Haydn's works. His church music, widely
known and partly printed, included many masses
and requiems, motets, offertoires, gradual es, a
'
Libera ' for men's voices composed for Beethoven's
funeral, etc. [See QueUen-Zexikon.^
Seyfried also contributed articles to Schilling's
Universal Lexikoii der Tonhwnst, Schumann's
Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, the Leipziger Allg.
Zcittmg, and Caeilia, besides editing Alhrechtsberger's
complete works — the Generalbass-
Schiile, Compositionslehre, and a Supplement
in three vols, on playing from score (Haslinger)
— and Beethoven's Studies m Oounterpoiiit
(1832). Nottebohm's critical investigations reduced
this last work to its proper value. [See
vol. i. p. 230, and iii. p. 408.]
Seyfried was elected an honorary or a corresponding
member of innumerable musical
societies, at home and abroad. His pupils
included Louis Schlosser, Karl Krebs, Heinrich
Ernst, Skiwa, Baron Joseph Pasqualati, Carl
Lewy, Heissler, Kessler, J. Fischhof, Sulzer,
Carl Haslinger, Parish - Alvars, K. Mulder,
S. Kuhe, Walther von Goethe, Baron Hermann
Lowenskiold, F. von Suppe, Kohler, and Basadona.
His closingyears were saddened bymisfortune,
and his death took place August 26, 1841. He
rests in the Wahringer cemetery (Ortsfriedhof),
near Beethoven and Schubert. c. F. p.
SFOGATO (oi)en, aiiy), a word used in rare
instances by Chopin (as in the ' Barcarole ') in
certain of those little cadenzas and ornaments
that he is so fond of using, to indicate what
may be called his own peculiar touch, a delicate
and, as it were, ethereal tone, which can only
be produced upon the pianoforte, and then only
by skilful performers.
'
Exhalation ' is the
only word that conveys an idea of this tone
'
when it is produced. A Soprano sfogato ' is
a thin, acute, voice. M.
SFORZANDO, SFOEZATO, 'forced'; a
direction usually found in its abbreviated foim
sf. or sfz. I'eferring to single notes or groups of
notes which are to be especially emphasised.
It is nearly equivalent to the accent =-, but is
less apt to be overlooked in performance, and
is therefore used in all important passages.
Good instances occur in Beethoven's Sonata for
violin and piano in C minor, op. 30, No. 2,
in the trio of the Scherzo ;
in Schumann's
Etudes Symphoniques, Variation 3, etc. M.
SGAMBATI, GiovAKNi, a remarkable pianist
and composer, born in Rome, May 28, 1843.
His mother, an Englishwoman, was the daughter
of Joseph Gott the sculptor, a native of London,
who had for many years practised his art in
Eome. Giovanni was intended for his father's
profession, that of an advocate, and he would
have been educated with that view but for his
strong turn for music. [He took his first lessons
in pianoforte-playing at the age of five from
Amerigo Barberi, author of a treatise on harmony,
who used to pride himself on the fact
that his own teacher had been a pupil of
Clementi.] After the death of his father in
1849 young Sgambati's mother migi-ated with
her two children to Trevi in Umbria, where
she married again. Here Giovanni's lessons,
supplemented by a course of harmony, were
continued under Natalucci, a former pupil of
Zingarelli, at the Conservatorio of Naples.
From the age of six the boy often played in
public, sang contralto in church, conducted
small orchestras, and was known as the author
of several sacred pieces. In 1860 he settled
in Rome and soon became famous for his playing,
and for the classical character of his programmes.
His favourite composers were Beethoven, Chopin,
and Schumann, and he was an excellent interpreter
of the fugues of Bach and Handel.
Shortly after this he was on the point of going
to Gennany to study when the arrival of Liszt
in Rome saved him from that necessity. "With
him Sgambati studied long and diligently.
[He soon began to give orchestral concerts in
the 'Galleria Dantesca,' which, as the 'Sala
Dante,' was for many years the only concerthall
in Rome. Here, under Sgambati's direction,
the symphonies and concerts of the German
masters, until then unknown in the papal city,
at length found a hearing. Beethoven's ' Eroica
was introduced to the Roman public and the
'
Emperor ' concerto was played to them by
Sgambati for the first time, just as later they
learned at his hands to know and appreciate
Brahms, Saint-Saens, and later writers.]
At the same time Sgambati was busy with
his compositions. In 1864 he wrote a string
quartet; in 1866, a pianoforte quintet (F minor.